Sunday, May 5, 2013

With conference championship meets around the corner, here's a wrap-up of this final weekend of the regular collegiate season:

In Seattle at the Ken Shannon Invitational, hosted by the University of Washington, efforts by Jax Thoirs (left/photo by Paul Merca) and Haley Jacobson in the men's pole vault and women's 100, UW alum Jordan Carlson in the women's 400, and the Seattle Pacific women's relay squads were the top performances on a sun soaked Saturday afternoon at Husky Track.

Thoirs, the national record holder for Scotland in the pole vault, cleared 17-8 1/2 (5.40m) on his third attempt to set a personal best for the second week in a row, beating reigning Pac-12 champ and teammate JJ Juilfs, who cleared 16-0 3/4 (4.90m).

Jacobson posted a big PR in the 100-meter dash, taking second in a time of 11.85 seconds that places her seventh on the Husky top-10 list. She had only broken the 12-second mark once before.

UW grad Jordan Carlson set a track record with her 53.34 clocking in the 400.

Another Husky grad, Kyle Nielsen threw the javelin 233-4 (71.12m), in an attempt to chase a world championships standard.

In the women's 4 x 100m, the Falcon team of BryAnne Wochnick, Ali Worthen, Tasia Baldwin and Kishia Mitchell ran 46.91 to set an new school record, breaking the old mark of 47.00 set in 1996.

While Simon Fraser got the Falcons in the last few meters of the women's 4 x 400, the team of Mitchell, Emily Quatier, Jasmine Johnson and McKayla Fricker ran 3:43.44 to finish behind the Clansmen, who ran 3:42.53, and set up a battle of two of the country's top relay squads at next week's GNAC championship meet in Monmouth, Oregon.

In Moscow, Idaho, Washington State's vertical jumpers were the highlight of the Vandal Jamboree, as Kristine Felix cleared a personal best of 13-1 1/2 (4.00m) in the women's pole vault; former Pac-10 scorer and NCAA qualifier Holly Parent won the high jump with a best of 5-8 1/2 (1.74m); and Jovan Vukicevic won the men's high jump with a mark of 7-0 1/4 (2.14m) in a jumpoff with teammate Ross VanZanten.

In Los Angeles, the Pac-12 multi-event championships got underway at Loker Stadium on the campus of USC, and the Huskies' Jeremy Taiwo is in the lead after the halfway mark in the decathlon with a score of 4200 points.

Behind him are Dakotah Keys of Oregon with 4,030 points, Viktor Fajoyomi of USC at 4,025, and UCLA's Dominic Giovannoni with 3,992 points.

In Kingston, Jamaica, former Husky Aretha Thurmond placed second in the discus, as she threw 187-5 (57.14m) to finish behind Gia Lewis-Smallwood's 204-9 (62.41m) at the Jamaica International Invitational.

We are honored to receive this award, as it comes from our peers who passionately cover the sport, and strive to continue the legacy of excellence that the late Adam Jacobs sought before his untimely passing.

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About Me

Internationally respected track and field writer Paul Merca brings his take on the sport to paulmerca.blogspot.com.
Paul was the assistant director of communications for the 1984 USA Women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Olympia, WA., and public relations director for the 1999 USA Cross Country Championships in Tacoma, WA.
The current public address announcer for the University of Washington's home track and field meets, Merca's been a media assistant to the USA national team (2001-11, 13, 15, 17) at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
His vast knowledge of the sport has been utilized by many of the country's sports television networks, and is a senior writer to Northwest Runner magazine. He's covered 13 IAAF World Track & Field Championships, and two Olympics.
Merca graduated from Seattle's Franklin High School in 1977, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1981 in Communications.
He competed in track and cross country at Franklin, and ran cross country at the University of Washington.